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dazais-guardian-angel · 1 year

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Okay, a good amount of time has passed, and after having seen this post by @weretiger-be-my-horse , I've been turning it over and over in my brain going absolutely feral over this concept. I need to expand upon my thoughts on this idea and all the evidence there is pointing towards it, whether that be actual tangible things, or purely strong vibes I have.

First of all, full disclaimer: I did not like the season 5 finale, and how it wrapped up the DoA arc. To say that I "disliked" it is putting it extremely lightly, in fact -- I absolutely hated it, and I am still, to a degree, in disbelief that I actually even watched those 24 minutes with my own two eyes, and that it somehow wasn't a complete fever dream. While I'm not going to go in long-winded detail into all the ways that I feel like the finale almost completely bastardized all of its featured characters and destroyed any and all buildup we've had going on in this arc for 50 some chapters now, because that's not the main point of this post, I will not make any attempt to hide the fact that the theory-crafting I'm about to pose here is partly influenced and prompted by how much I hated the finale, and how much I desperately hope that it will not end up being manga canon. Therefore, if you enjoyed the finale — and that's fine! — and don't want to read any negativity about it, then I would not recommend reading any further (I mean, you've probably already left by this point, which is fair lol), While obviously it's important that I be as objective and unbiased as possible when explaining my thoughts, some of my negative feelings about the writing will be a part of this analysis, even if this isn't going to be a full-blown rant. Just know that if you proceed.

With that out of the way, let me continue.

So. In the aforementioned post, the theory presented is that the anime may be operating on an alternate timeline, and that this will become evident once we read the upcoming October chapter, wherein things will go completely differently post-chapter 110 than they do in the final episode — probably for the worse, with the s5 finale intending to lull us into a false sense of security and make us assume that everything in the manga arc finale will wrap up as smoothly and consequence-freely(? lol) as it did in the anime one. It also suggests that the Fukuchi we see at the very end that sskk are fighting came from the manga timeline, where he won, and that he used the Book to jump to a timeline where he lost, the anime one, proven by the fact that this Fukuchi is wearing a mask with the same design on it as the mask Fukuchi is wearing on the chapter 110 DoA color spread/title page.

First of all, I want to note the fact that it's not just the mask design that's the same: the entire outfit is roughly more or less the same as well. It's not completely 1-to-1, because the anime can never fully match the intricacies of Harukawa's beautiful outfit designs, and the Fukuchi in this scene has the kimono half-off because of the... super saiyan mode he's in, but most all of the main pieces of clothing are there. Any small inaccuracies could also be attributed to the fact that Harukawa probably didn't have this finalized art ready back when this episode was being made, so the animators wouldn't have had the complete design to work off of. But in general, because it's all so similar, I think we can quite confidently say that the ending episode Fukuchi is meant to be the one from this manga art.

Also, people have pointed this out, but it's worth mentioning that the mask Asagiri wore at Anime Expo in July was referencing this Fukuchi. It's not a crucial detail, but it just proves more that Asagiri is a gigantic fucking troll, and that he clearly wanted to draw attention to this Fukuchi design. It's important. He describes the mask here as made in the motif of an ellipses inside a speech bubble... could that perhaps be referencing meta aspects, like the Book?

Next, I want to talk about the even bigger elephant in the room, which to me is the most damning and undeniable piece of evidence there is of the anime operating on a completely separate timeline from the manga:

This Fucking Hand™️

As we all know, in the anime, Fyodor injures his hand when the password input device blows up, and as we all know, this does not happen in the manga. In the last episode, Dazai claims that the final nail in the coffin of his impromptu plan to kill Fyodor relied on this hand injury: because Fyodor couldn't pilot his escape helicopter himself, he would ask one of his Meursault vampires to do it for him, unaware that Bram and thus this vampire was now on the ADA's side, and said vampire could kill him while his guard was down.

Ignoring how utterly stupid and contrived this plan is when you stop and think about it for more than two seconds, the fact of the matter is that something that initially seemed like nothing more than an odd but inconsequential anime original addition ended up snowballing into being the entire reason one of the big bads was brought down. If Fyodor hadn't hurt his hand, he wouldn't have needed another pilot, and so the traitor vampire wouldn't have had an opportunity to get near him and kill him without him expecting it even though said vampire was presumably with him as they were leaving Meursault, and was probably already a traitor by then, so there was plenty opportunity for him to still die. not to mention by Chuuya's hands at literally any time he wanted to, because Chuuya was coherent the whole time. Also there's absolutely no way Dazai could have known exactly what Ranpo would do, no matter how smart he is and how much he trusts him. idk it's fucking dumb, just roll with it. Therefore, putting aside all other variables for now, we can conclude that, on the most basic level, this signifies that no hand wound = no death.

And let me tell you, this hand wound bothers me. It really, really does. Because they focus on it a LOT — they go out of their way to draw attention to it MULTIPLE TIMES, from the moment it first happens to the end of the season. Fyodor even talks about it to himself, about Dazai being able to cause him tangible, visible, bodily harm, (something that, again, as far as we've seen, has never happened in the manga). Hell, even after Fyodor's death, they're still drawing attention to it, because his right arm is all of him that survives, and Dazai picks it up and gives it to Nikolai to do his hilarious sad little gay fondling of it played completely straight even though there's nothing straight going on here at all! It's like it's a big red flashing sign at all times going "you see this injured hand? This is important. Are you picking up that it's important? Are you taking note of it?" Why is that? Obviously, it serves to give us the lore crumbs about Fyodor and "that man", but that's hardly the main, much more glaring reason, as I've already mentioned.

Fyodor doesn't hurt his hand in the manga. Fyodor won't die here in the manga. I am so dead serious by this point about this, and it's not just simply the fact that this was absolutely not at all the time for him to die, or the fact that his hand is the reason for his death in the anime in and of itself, but how much EMPHASIS they place on this, and on the hand in general. What would be the point of adding something like this, if it's not meant to alert us to the fact that it has a major impact on how the story plays out? We all know Bones: they struggle to get right and include everything that's already there in the source material; they would never go out of their way to add something this noteworthy if there wasn't a very good reason for it, if it wasn't absolutely necessary. I've seen a few people bring up the fact that Fyodor gets shot in the shoulder by Sigma and that that could lead to the same outcome in the manga, but I disagree: although he has blood on his shoulder in the manga, it seems like the bullet just grazed the top of it, because his arm and hand appears completely functional afterwards (not hanging limp by his side or anything). But that doesn't even matter, because this isn't even about the semantics/logistics of how the hand wound caused Fyodor's death because again, it's a stupid outcome, or what could serve as a substitute in the manga — thematically, this is a textbook example of the butterfly effect. Countless parallel universes exist within this series, ones where even the most minute differences lead to a majorly different outcome: this just happens to be one of them. There's no reason to think it isn't, and there's no reason to not think that the anime wants us to clue into the fact that things only went as smoothly as they did on the Meursault side because of this wound; in other words, that things will go very differently in the manga thanks to the absence of said wound. They wouldn't have added it in the first place and put such clearly deliberate emphasis on it otherwise.

Things are going to happen very differently in the manga, at least when it comes to the Meursault crew (but then, if you assume that, you then naturally assume it all will be very different). This is the only conclusion one can come to with the presentation of this anime-only wound, combined with the fact that parallel universes are a very real thing in BSD.

I'm going to go on a bit of a tangent, so bear with me. I play a lot of visual novels, and although such concepts aren't really as original now as they were a while ago, some of my favorite and some of the very best VNs out there are the ones that break the fourth wall and make the visual novel branching route format directly intertwined with the story: you know, the ones where the characters go "if only I had done things differently, maybe everything would have turned out better...!" in a wink wink nudge nudge moment, and the ones where the characters are aware of the different timelines, even, or even have the ability to gain information from their selves in said alternate timelines to influence events in their current one (I'm intentionally not naming the games I'm thinking of for the sake of spoilers, but if you know, you know lmao). It gets very meta in this regard, and this is how I started viewing BSD through the lens of ever since I first learned about Beast: like a visual novel with many branching routes, and only a few routes that feel entirely "right".

When I first read Dazai's Entrance Exam, I was struck by how unnerving the ending sequence in the abandoned hospital felt. Obviously, Kunikida's internal struggle over Sasaki's actions and motives is him still desperately clinging to his ideal world that does not exist, but the specific type of phrases he uses — "who is wrong?" "[who is] the cause of all this?" "there has to be an ideal world" "there has to be something, I'm sure of it" "There must have been something we could have done!" — and the framing of the scene in general, is eerily reminiscent of a bad ending in a visual novel, to me. There's a haunting, looming, bleak sense that a different outcome could have been achieved, if different decisions had been made, or if things outside of anyone's control had been different... and we know that this is true, because in Beast alone, Kunikida never goes through the Azure Messenger incident, because Dazai doesn't have his entrance exam. Hell, you could even consider the anime's version of the Azure Messenger arc an alternate timeline in of itself, if you really wanted to, long before we even arrive at season 5.

When it comes to Beast, this timeline has almost the opposite feeling of what I described above, that I've also encountered in visual novels: the idea of a "good route" or "good ending" that still doesn't feel quite earned, or as perfect as one would expect. Beast is presented as the "ideal" timeline purely for one sole reason: Oda is alive. It is the only timeline where he's alive, and keeping Oda alive is the ultimate goal Dazai wants to achieve, the only reason this timeline exists; therefore, disregarding all else, Beast should be the best timeline, because Oda's death is the greatest devastation in the series to date. We all want him to live, so why wouldn't the timeline where he does be the best one? And yet... of course, it isn't. Dazai is alone, and steeped in darkness and loneliness without Oda, and dies by the end of the story for Oda's continued living. Atsushi has Kyouka still, but he's suffering and more traumatized, and unable to heal while stuck in the mafia, and neither can Kyouka. Akutagawa is living a much better life in the ADA... but without his sister, and without what he has from his bond with Atsushi in canon, that isn't replicated in Beast. And Oda... Oda is alive, and he has his children and his novel, but there is a feeling that he is aimless, that something in his life is missing. He has everything he ever wanted, but all that means nothing without what he truly needs: Dazai, and his time with Dazai and Ango at the bar. In this way, things going well and us getting what we want — in this case, Oda living — goes against how it's supposed to be, the natural order, which is why it feels so hollow. In the specific visual novel I'm thinking of here as a comparison (again, shoutout if you know), there's an alternate ending that involves you inputting information you gain at the end of the game very early on in the game, wherein the protagonist now has memories of the future and is able to bypass and prevent all of the events that take place normally. This means that people who die or are hurt somehow in general are saved from that fate, and nothing bad ever occurs; everything wraps up neatly and nicely... but again, there's an undeniable, unsettling feeling of emptiness, of a victory that rings hollow, because what's the point if everything is simply handed to you easily, where's the sense of accomplishment, without any struggles to achieve said victories, or any growth along the way? How can it feel earned if one doesn't have to, in Dazai's words, "scream within the storm of uncertainty, and run with flowing blood"?

You can probably already see where I'm going with this.

This finale feels weird. Really, really weird. It feels too cheap, too simple, too unsatisfying. So much so, in fact, that for almost the entire runtime, as I was bombarded with resolution upon resolution one after another, I kept thinking "There's no way this can be real. Where's the catch? When is the "gotcha!" moment gonna happen? The "it was all a dream" reveal?". And this isn't just because I hated the writing, and that it really did feel like a fever dream watching fanfic levels of bad (actually, that's an insult to fanfic writers, tbh; they could do better) — no, it genuinely feels so incredibly fake. Even upon rewatching it and already knowing what happens, my brain still naturally keeps expecting some kinda of "sike, you THOUGHT!" moment to suddenly appear. It just.... feels "too good to be true". Dazai and Chuuya come out unscathed, and it's revealed that they were never in any real danger to begin with. Fyodor, one of our biggest threats, is dealt with supposedly for good (I say "supposedly" only because of the Jesus line, but if anything imo, I think that's just a hint that this won't be the canon ending in the manga, so in a sense he's going to "come back to life"), and Nikolai seems somewhat at peace with his death. The other biggest threat, Fukuchi, is also dealt with, and he and Fukuzawa get their final moment together of closure. Yes, Sigma is left in Meursault don't even get me started on how angry this alone makes me, and Fukuzawa loses Fukuchi, but overall, everything is portrayed in a positive light, and any negatives or losses are quickly glossed over. Everything is tied up nicely, neatly, and smoothly. ...And that is exactly what makes it feel so wrong, and hard to trust in.

I'm not sure if this will make sense, but to me, the finale is so incredibly poorly written that it almost feels.... intentional. It's so bad to the point of feeling self-aware in how bad it is, how unrealistically happy and convenient an ending it is. It had to end this neatly in order to rush to wrap up this arc for the season finale and not leave the last episode on a cliffhanger — which imo is chiefly the main reason it turned out this way, and, if this whole theory is true, Asagiri just used it to his advantage — and I'm not saying this was probably an effect Bones had in mind intentionally, I'm sure they just threw shit at the wall and went with whatever stuck, maaaaybe with some suggestions/approval from Asagiri, but the result is that you have a conclusion that contradicts so much of what was set up before and goes against so many character arcs, making some characters so out of character and even regressing in their development Dazai. I'm talking about Dazai abandoning Sigma, because he would never; hashtag #NOTMYDAZAI. Also Nikolai, Nikolai for most of that is so ooc I can't even begin to describe it oh my god. Everyone is OOC to a degree though lmao, and opens so many plot holes, to the point that it's impossible not to watch all that and get the feeling that it is subtly saying to you "did you really think it could be this easy? It feels wrong, doesn't it? It doesn't feel satisfying. It feels unearned." I find it incredibly interesting and suspicious in particular that they confirmed multiple theories people had about soukoku in Meursault: that Chuuya slowed the elevator's fall so that Dazai wouldn't die from it, that Chuuya slowed down the bullet so that it only penetrated Dazai's skin and not his skull, and that the both of them used Fyodor's camera angle to their advantage because they knew he wouldn't be able to see certain things from his view. I'm not saying that Asagiri trawled BSD twitter and tumblr after those chapters dropped for the most popular theories before the final episode was made lmao, there was no time for that (imagine though lol—), but I do think it's highly likely that he already had in mind exactly what theories would be made about these parts (I mean, the evidence for the gun scene was all there), and that Dazai rattling them off in his long monologue to Fyodor at the end is essentially him speaking to the audience and going "yeah, that's what you would predict, right? Those are the clichés, after all", much like him suggesting earlier that he can maybe bring Chuuya back to himself with a few moving words and the power of friendship, and Fyodor using the split personalities trope to fool Sigma. We expect these tropes to be true. Of course we'd fall for them, as Fyodor tells Sigma, especially if the evidence is right there. But Asagiri himself has explicitly said that he likes doing the opposite of what people expect. And so just because people predicted correctly with the three things I mentioned in this timeline... doesn't mean they'll be true in the manga's. Things happened how we wanted and expected it to, and everything turned out happily. So we can relax now, right? Everything will work out just as easily in the manga, right? Or... is the reason most of this finale feels so fake and unsettling and unsatisfying because it's meant to lull us into a false sense of security before all our heroes lose in the manga? Because deep down, we don't want an ending that's this simple, because we'd rather have a conclusion where our characters have struggled more and grown more and come out the better for it, and we know it?

After rewatching the episode a lot, and watching some other videos, and doing a lot of thinking, I am pretty confident in suspecting that the only part of this finale that is actually from manga canon, aside from Aya jumping off the building of course, is Fyodor and Nikolai's exchange after Fyodor leaves Meursault — specifically, them talking about Fyodor leaving Sigma behind, and their "new game" and Nikolai being excited at the prospect of it. This little conversation actually feels in character for them, and it's easy to tell this when contrasting it with everything that happens immediately after, wherein Fyodor is fatally stabbed, and Nikolai, completely at odds with what he was just talking about, just... stands there and watches Fyodor die while Dazai monologues lmao. I'm not sure if the helicopter is still a factor, but I would bet good money on Fyolai getting out of Meursault being manga canon, and that Dazai and Chuuya getting out as well and killing Fyodor + everything with FukuFuku, is part of the anime original ending, in order to wrap up everything positively. It makes much more sense if you think about, in reality (aka in the manga), Dazai and Chuuya still being left behind in Meursault (where they can eventually try to get Sigma), because none of it was an act and things did not go according to plan, and Fukuchi having an entirely different goal that doesn't feel so stupid and contradictory to his character, and Fukuzawa possibly dying — everyone seemingly loses, with Aya still being the last hope, perhaps by awakening her ability like we all speculated.

There's a youtuber I watch who covers BSD in-depth, despite being an anime-only (she reads the respective manga content after each season, though). Going into this finale, she knew about the fact that the anime had overtaken the manga, though she didn't know where the cutoff point was; despite that, however, she made predictions about what was from the manga so far and what was anime original, and it was almost entirely spot-on, based mostly on what she basically described as "anime original dialogue." She talked about how you can always tell when dialogue is veering into the realm of anime-original, because the sentences are very short, choppy, and slightly out of character, but generic enough to not be TOO out of character, and so that anyone can easily write said lines, even if they're not extremely familiar with the character like the original author would be. And when I heard this explanation, everything clicked — because so much of this finale has dialogue like that. The Fyolai scenes just feel peppered with it, around the lines I mentioned earlier, the Dazai dialogue does too, and ESPECIALLY shit at the end like Fukuchi and Fukuzawa exchanging the cliche death lines to end all death lines: "Are you there? I'm a little tired." "Rest up." That just isn't Bungou Stray Dogs. That isn't Asagiri. BSD is cheesy at times, yes, but it isn't like this; it's smarter. The dialogue is smarter, the explanations/plot twists are smarter, Asagiri is smarter, and the aforementioned youtuber I watched agreed. She's a pretty casual fan of the series, so if even she could pick up on these things, I think it speaks volumes.

I mentioned this briefly earlier, but this theory makes sense if you consider that this situation probably came about because of Bones wanting two seasons back-to-back when they did, and this arc being as long as it is. Season 3 aired in 2019, and I imagine Bones would have wanted season 4 in 2020, and might have then been willing to wait a bit longer for season 5 in order for more of this arc's manga chapters to come out — but then covid happened. Because of that, season 4 was delayed to 2023, creating the longest gap we've had between seasons, and I wouldn't at all be surprised if the delay made them want season 5 right together with it, after getting so far "behind", so to speak. S4 was announced in November of 2021, and roughly around that time, Asagiri was finishing up writing the plot of the DoA arc. If Bones came to him sometime in late 2021 and said they wanted two seasons now (so basically, one giant two cour season), Asagiri would know that not only of course would this arc not be finished publishing in the manga for a very long time yet, but that roughly 20ish episodes would not be enough to cover it all to the end, with this arc being longer than any arc the anime has adapted to date. Because of all this, and the arc manga chapters being nowhere near fully drawn to completion, he'd have to make a decision about what to do, and what to give Bones. Without ending season 5 on a massive cliffhanger that wouldn't be resolved for years until an eventual season 6, the only other option would be to rush towards an anime-original ending for the DoA arc.... and for Asagiri to take advantage of that, and integrate it into BSD's lore. Thereby creating a truly unique cross-media experience that utilizes the different mediums to create multiple timelines, that could make both the anime and manga interact with each other and become part of a bigger picture (not that you'd need to see both to get the full experience, mind you, just that it'd provide a little bonus if you did).... and would without a doubt be Asagiri's biggest surprise yet.

...I feel like at this point I'm starting to ramble, and my evidence become more and more incoherent and less substantial lmao, so I should probably end this post. 💀 Thank you if you've read this far, and hopefully it made some semblance of sense, despite not being structured very well; I know I promised at the start to try to be as objective as possible and curb my negative feelings, but I'm not sure how well I succeeded in that regard. If it weren't for the Fukuchi thing and the Fyodor hand thing, I probably wouldn't take how wrong and strange and bad the finale feels to me as serious evidence about it being an alternate timeline, especially since I seem to be one of the only people who actually hates all of it.... but combined with everything else, I am just so convinced of this theory being true. It started off as pure copium, but as more time has gone on, I fully, 100% believe in my bones (ha) that there is no way that finale is the same Bungou Stray Dogs I know and love, for so many reasons. It just isn't. It can't be. I know BSD better than this, I know Asagiri better than this, and I know that it's absolutely in the realm of possibility for him to cook up this whole scheme to completely blindside us with in the upcoming chapters, because that's exactly the kind of shit Mr. "Please Be Surprised!" himself would pull. If I end up being completely wrong, I guess I'm wrong, and you can laugh at me all you want then.... but I just know that ages ago people were teasing the idea of the anime operating on a different timeline from the manga, and I truly do think that only now are we finally seeing that idea come to fruition, as a setup for Asagiri going full-bore insanity with the Book in the upcoming arc(s). if I and the OP of that theory end up right, this will be the wildest time in the BSD fandom's history.

Like. I cannot even emphasize how hard they are trolling us at this point. Something is going on. Something is being cooked over there, the likes of which we've never seen before... and I don't think any of us are ready for it.

Oh yeah, and one last thing of note: both Fyodor and Nikolai here have their right arms hidden from view. Is that alluding to anything? I'm not sure. I also think that since chapter 110 was so short, next chapter will likely be 110.5 instead of 111, and if that's the case, this title spread could still technically be associated with the next chapter... wherein we might see this Fukuchi, who ends up wreaking havoc, right before he jumps to the timeline in the anime, as we see him at the end of the s5 finale.

I guess we'll find out on Tuesday.

#bungou stray dogs #meta #bsd season 5 #bsd s5 spoilers #alternatively titled 'when you copium so hard out of stewing in your denial anger and grief that it becomes reality'#is it still copium if there's strong evidence for it? idk #i DON'T know what i'll do if the stuff in this finale ends up being canon :))) make no mistake about that #but until the very moment the schrödinger's cat box is opened and i am forced to acknowledge it with my own two eyes in chapter 111/110.5 #i am choosing to stay calm and rational and look at things with a sound mind... and acknowledge all the signs that are there #of which there are so many #Asagiri is a troll. he has always been a troll and this is more evident than ever lately #and he would know that everyone who watched the finale would take it at face value #never expecting it to go completely differently in the manga #and he's so much smarter than what was in that finale. he would never write those things. i would stake my life on it.#i don't care how many flaws BSD does have that i do acknowledge; he is a good writer in so many ways and he is so much better than /that/#i could fill an entire BOOK (ha ha) with all of the reasons why this finale does not work. seriously it is a never-ending can of worms #of ooc characterizations and plot holes and abandoned threads and straight up CONTRADICTIONS with what has been stated before in the arc #with fukuchi's motivations and presentation; with things that were happening in meursault; just.... so much illogical shit in general #THE MACHINE HEALED THEIR WOUNDS??? ARE YOU FOR REAL????#*sigh* but i said i wasn't gonna rant alskdjgfkdls #tbh though the only REAL thing i need to know that the finale was anime only was what the youtuber i watch pointed out:#that Bram magically regenerated all his clothes. because if it were Asagiri Bram would be naked from the shoulders down fjdkslsaskd #...anyway. This theory is real and true. I am manifesting it into existence 🙏🙏🙏#Asagiri my man...... you have never let me down yet in all the years I've known your series. Please don't let me down now.#I'm trusting in you more than ever right now...... and your ability to blow all our minds in the best possible way #(guys i'm really really really scared deep down; please hold me hahaha ahahahahaaaa- *cries*)#this would the coolest thing in the history of ever though if it happened though. I am SO EXCITED FOR THE POSSIBILITY!!!!!#ASAGIRI YOU SICK AND TWISTED MF; HOW DARE YOU MAKE ME BEG FOR MY FAVES TO SUFFER JUST SO THAT THIS BAD WRITING DOESN'T BECOME REALITY!!!!!!#he knows exactly what he's doing *SCREAMS* :))))))))

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mxtxfanatic · 1 year

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Thinking through the misconception that Shen Yuan is a self-serving individual who spends most of his time as Shen Qingqiu doing what he can with the motivation of “saving his own skin,” thereby negating his acts of kindness as innately selfish, and how this is all wrong. When he first transmigrates and finds out that, rather than it being at the beginning of the novel, he is more than halfway through Luo Binghe’s disciple arc, he panics:

That meant that at this point, this master and this disciple, Shen Qingqiu and Luo Binghe, had already passed the incident at the mountain entrance. There, the latter had been forced to kneel as punishment.

It meant they had also passed the incident where Luo Binghe’s fellow Qing Jing Peak disciples had pummeled him en masse, as well as the incident where he’d “backtalked” Shizun and been strung up and beaten, in addition to the incident where he’d ruined the peak’s talismans and been punished with hard labor... Such a glorious track record.

(Shen Qingqiu waved goodbye to his last hope of survival.)

—Chapt. 1: Scum, official

Luo Binghe had already been a Qing Jing Peak disciple for four years, all of which he had been subjected to horrific abuse at the hands of Shen Jiu. Shen Yuan is well aware of this and clearly believes that everything that Shen Jiu has done to Luo Binghe is already enough to damn him to an early, vengeance-fulfilling grave. Despite thinking that his death was predestined, though, he spends the entire time that the OOC function is frozen fighting with his system about being kind to Luo Binghe, showing kindness to the boy multiple times and arguing after the fact that he should not be punished by the system for acting in such a way. In a way, he is already courting death via system by fighting against his system to be kind with all the risk and no benefits, since he keeps his acts a secret from everyone, most of all Luo Binghe, his would-be murderer. It is only after the OOC function is unfrozen that he decides to enact his plan of “earning a less painful death” by overtly being kind to Luo Binghe. So while it is clear that Shen Yuan thinks his kindness is only a cosmetic salve, not a solution that will save him, he still chooses to show kindness to Luo Binghe at imminent risk to himself.

Mind you, though, we’ve only covered Shen Yuan’s actions and intentions towards Luo Binghe, not counting all the times Shen Yuan was life-changingly kind to “meaningless” side characters. His motivation for redirecting Ming Fan’s anger from Luo Binghe was that he didn’t want the boy to die a needless death just so that the plot could give Luo Binghe another chance to flex. His kindness towards Gongyi Xiao who Shen Yuan thought was guaranteed a good (albeit banished) ending was purely borne from the fact that he liked the kid (and also a little bit from him reminding Shen Yuan of Luo Binghe), and it was enough to get Gongyi Xiao to turn against his own sect to protect Shen Qingqiu. And not only did he stop Gongyi Xiao from killing the snake hybrid demon they found in Bai Lu Forest—even though it would have been expected of them as cultivators—he even left a magic mushroom for him, paving the way for Tianjun’s and Zhuzhi-lang’s reemergence into the narrative. Shen Yuan doesn’t do any of these things with the intent to change the narrative. He does them because they were kind things to do, and it is that selfless kindness that changes pidw into the world of svsss.

All this to say: from the very beginning of the novel, Shen Yuan is introduced as a character whose transmigration is meant to bring humanity into the aloof, abusive Qing Jing Peak Lord Shen Qingqiu, thereby injecting kindness into the story where there had previously only been cruelty, and he is shown to be the perfect man for the job as someone who is willing to put himself at risk to do good. This is why it is Shen Yuan and not Shen Jiu who is able to save the world pidw and it’s protagonist from their original destructive trajectory.

#svsss #human metas mxtx #me: let me take a break from reading today #also me: let me write metas on the other books instead #it's really because i DO want to be reading #but today has been rough so i don't have the energy #also fuck whoever says that lbh didn't experience 'real abuse' at the hands of shen jiu #and that shen yuan is just a 'modern snowflake' for calling it abuse #stringing a child up to beat them and locking them in a barn as well as having a bunch of other children beat them to unconsciousness #is the DEFINITION of abuse; there is a reason pidw fans were calling for the original sqq's blood #stop rewriting the book just because you've imprinted on the resident child abuser!

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rememberdamonn · 2 months

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Well written characters have a core conflict that consists of a goal that the character wants/needs to achieve, and an obstacle that gets in the way of that goal. For Damon, that core conflict is Love vs. Fear. His goal is love - to be loved, to have love. The obstacle that gets in the way of that goal is his own fear - fear of being abandoned/betrayed/rejected, fear of not being enough, fear of letting people down, fear of losing his loved ones... in short, fear of losing love. Every majorly bad decision that Damon makes, he makes either in reaction to or in anticipation of that fear being realized. When he kills Jeremy in S2, and Aaron in S5? He does it because he’s just been abandoned and rejected by Elena/Katherine. When he hides the cure from Elena in S6? He does it because he’s afraid that if she becomes human he’ll lose her. When he feeds Elena his blood in S2? He does it because he’s afraid he’ll lose her in the sacrifice. These seeds are planted throughout the entire show. In 4x15 when Damon sires Elena to turn off her humanity (another thing he does out of fear), Stefan tells him that it was a mistake because despite Elena losing her brother, she still has Damon. Damon’s reply? “I’m not enough.”

There's a conversation that Stefan and Damon have in 7x22 that lays it all out neatly:

Stefan: You really think I did the right thing by taking Caroline against her will?

Damon: One hundred percent.

Stefan: You said that's how you know you love someone. And for a second there, I actually believed you. I thought that my love for Caroline was so strong that I would do anything to protect it. But then I realized, that's not love, Damon. That's fear. That night that you put yourself down, it wasn't because you love Elena. It was because you were afraid if you didn't, you would do something terrible, and you would lose her forever. And that fear was so powerful that it overrode any love that you felt for me, or Bonnie, or anybody else. I refuse to be ruled by fear. I refuse to be you.

In 7x10 when Damon is forced to face the truth while in the Phoenix Stone, he tells his mother, “Give me a chance to let you love me.” This is representative of Damon’s entire journey throughout the show. Damon doesn’t let people love him because he’s scared that they won’t. That’s why he tells Elena in 3x19 that he doesn’t want to have to live up to anyone’s expectations, and he tells Bonnie the same thing in 8x10 when he reads her his letter. Damon’s self sabotage and his insistence on pushing everyone away is a product of the fear of what will happen if he lets people love him - but by giving into that fear, he ensures that he’ll never get what he wants most.

In order for Damon to have a successful, satisfying ending, he has to 1) overcome his fears. He does this in 8x16 when he attempts to self-sacrifice for the right reasons, in direct contrast to his self sacrifice in 7x22 for the wrong reasons - a sacrifice he makes out of fear:

“There is a girl waiting outside for you, and if you go in there with me and get all screwed up, you're gonna have problems with her, and you're gonna blame me.” - Damon to Stefan, 7x22 (S7 is written to be a tragedy but that’s another post)

And 2) he gets the chance to let himself be loved. That’s why Delena has to be endgame. Damon finally getting a chance to let himself be loved is central to his character in a way that makes any other ending a tragedy for him.

So what about Stefan? Stefan’s goal is Choice. The same way that Damon has lost in love, Stefan has repeatedly had his choices taken from him. Katherine takes Stefan’s choice away when she compels him, bloodlust takes Stefan’s choice away when he becomes a ripper, Klaus takes Stefan’s choice away when he enslaves him. This is why Stefan is so protective of Elena’s ability to choose, and it’s also why narratively, Stefan’s worst crime is taking Damon’s choice away when he forced him to become a vampire. Morally, it’s far from the worst thing Stefan has done, but thematically it’s the misdeed that matters the most. That’s why it’s brought up again and again.

The obstacle that’s getting in the way of Stefan’s Choice is Vampirism. Whether it’s his own or someone else’s, Stefan can’t choose the life he wants to have or the person he wants to be without vampirism getting in the way. For Stefan to have a successful, satisfying ending, he has to 1) reconcile his relationship with vampirism. He does this by escaping his vampirism when he’s cured. And 2) he has to have the opportunity to choose. That’s why human Stefan is immediately on vervain, and that’s why he maintains the ability to choose to sacrifice himself even after Damon attempts to compel him in 8x16. Is it the best way to have Stefan accomplish his goal? Personally, I don’t think so. I would’ve preferred to see him accept his vampirism rather than escape it, and I would’ve preferred for him not to die. But in a finale where one brother makes a choice to sacrifice himself and the other brother gets the girl, it’s clear which has to be which for their arcs to resolve in a thematically satisfying way.

#delena #damon salvatore #stefan salvatore #meta #text #lala talks #apparently kevin williamson swapped the deaths at the last minute? and ppl said it's because he's petty #it's not because he's petty it's because he understands thematic storytelling better than anyone else on that team #anyway speaking of #S7 #the way that damon manipulates stefan into letting him go in the finale by using his own rhetoric against him #because he's STILL so damn scared #after stefan spent the entire season fighting against the stone that was trying to get him to do that very thing??#chills #remember liberation by phoenix stone is not a good thing lol #it liberated damon and he wanted to die #the entire point of S7 is that stefan and damon need each other!!!#stefan even says it before damon convinces him to let go #also lol at caroline saying damon finally made the selfless choice #she didn't hear his reasons “you're gonna blame me” nope its still very much about him and his fear don't get it twisted #damon was NOT supposed to go in there by himself #but he did... and look what happened #honestly brilliant writing i didn't want to like it but there it is

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lugarn · 21 days

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#if you're not making things and contributing #it's not really fandom it's just consumption #and i don't consider thousands of words of meta contributing in a meaningful way #as someone who writes a lot of meta #there's a reason it is called meta #it's navel-gazing and writing meta is the equivalent of sharing your headcanons but not writing fic #yes you've shared a premise but i long for the creative follow-through #fandom meta

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flufflecat · 1 year

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Can someone explain what the narrative stakes are even supposed to be anymore in jjk. All the characters are essentially guaranteed to die, the current cast is comprised almost entirely of characters who showed up 2/3rds into the story and we're supposed to care about them for some reason, and I do not even know what the threat is supposed to be anymore. The apocalypse? Destruction of an amorphous innocent society? Like has ANYTHING been shown of "here's the regular world that apparently needs to be saved" or are we just supposed to assume "this society is just Real Life+, so you're REQUIRED to care if some guy threatens to kill all humanity, because one of those humanities may be... a child" or something. Can you spare two seconds to show anything other than some magic randos fighting, or is it just a superhero story all the time now, minus the fun. Remember when yuuji had friends.

#jujutsu kaisen #jjk crit #sorry for like being salty in what will prob be the main tag #I simply do not vibe at ALL with the direction this series has gone in and would love someone to complain about it with ahfkaj #I'd write an entire meta on the narrative flaws but I do not feel like it #seriously though it's chill if people like the story and I'm not trying to cause shit by tagging it #well I'm sort of trying to cause shit #but that shit is 'blease will someone complain with me because I love complaining'#I just don't get it #like oh wow you killed characters off and established stakes! that sets a tone and shows that this is a serious conflict!#oh nvm you've killed everyone just to be gratuitous about it and prove how tooootally realistic your story is #and now there's no reason to care bc why get invested when there's an 80% chance the characters will all die #like. you're just alienating people from caring about the story you're trying to make them care about #idek what kenjaku is supposed to be up to anymore #for all I care he could explode the world and I'd be like whatever there was probably no one interesting left anyway #everything that happens anymore in jjk feels like someone said 'but what if all the nonsense in DBZ... was edgy'#and then thought they did something interesting #wooooahhhh someone did a fight for 70 chapters! so innovative and unique!#someone transformed! what a twist!!#woooahhh you did a nonsense rug-pull and are now lying to us acting like it was intended the whole time! sacre bleu!!!#anyway see my previous complainy post to see why gojos plot specifically is harmful bullshit #but it's a shoooooneeennnnnn #it doesn't neeeeeeeed to be written well or responsibly amiright?!#it just needs to make straight guys on twitter think they're unique for saying 'the real issue with jjk is that some women like it '#ok I'm done complaining. FOR NOW.#I'm sure I'll think of something else to complain about in two seconds.#fluffle talks

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shimmerluna · 4 months

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i do think there's probably something suspicious about the way everyone loves Ca$h and Quinni and their depth while essentially reducing Darren to their shared supporting character and/or the sassy black woman(/person in this case) stereotype, but I feel somewhat hypocritical bringing it up

#shimmer's thoughts #heartbreak high #darren rivers #cash piggott #ca$h piggott #quinni gallagher jones #tbf i'm mainly a meta writer and i feel like they mentioned darren's issues so clearly in s1 that there's not much for me to say #but most people aren't meta writers. and/or people who know the show better might be able to find things to talk about #it could also be more of a problem with the show itself bc from what i can remember they don't get much else to do #like. it feels like the white characters they support just have more depth and more going on than them #and ik people have talked about the show being weird about missy and malakai #although if we're going to talk about how missy and malakai are mistreated by the show #why is no attention given to the fact that darren's like 90% a stereotype #and 9% is them being desperate enough to change integral parts of themself for a white boy #and 1% is them explaining the stereotype with parent issues where the white dad is focused on and the black mom just disappears #that's still suspicious #also i feel like everyone jumps to hate on them every time they get the chance #without looking at why they do things. but then again the show doesn't really explain their reasoning ever does it #either way i feel like i either see people stereotyping them or shitting on them and no one in between acting regular about things #like i just went into the tags to make sure i'm not losing it and there's like 3 posts cutting them slack for the s1 ca$h storyline #and that's it. everything else focuses on ca$h or quinni or hates on them or stereotypes them. i just think that's a bit odd #idk. i can't put my finger on it but something's not right. i don't trust it #i mean i kinda did put my finger on it. i kinda slapped it repeatedly with my finger. but i still don't see a coherent enough thread here #to be personally satisfied. if i can't write a summary of my thoughts my thoughts aren't clear enough

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sortanonymous · 5 months

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Sorta Angry Comics #2 - "Group Trauma-Dump (and Friendship Time! :D)"

Alternate Title - "Angsty Birds"

#angry birds #angry birds memes #angry birds comic #angry birds comic studio #angry birds hal #angry birds stella #angry birds silver #angry birds bubbles #way more headcanon-heavy than the last one #this may as well be a backdoor pilot for any angry birds fanfic i write if/when i miraculously get off my bum and finish meta knightmare iv #yeah i love imagining hal as a failed banjo singer who back-doored into the flock (although usually with terence and bubbles by his side)#and oooooo boy silver!#i LOVE imagining her having a super weird and complicated relationship with the pigs #yeah they almost cooked her and probably indoctrinated her but they also raised her and probably did love her at least a bit #i especially love imagining king smoothcheeks as her estranged older brother who was basically her little brother in all ways but age #(on the off chance you've read my meta knightmare fics they were basically like susie and sirica except if susie were a complete dumb-butt)#also for some reason i just imagine chef pig being the absolute worst to silver and trying to ruin her life at every turn #basically all of this was stuff i imagined for half-rate fic ideas in the late '10s that i never even wrote an outline for...#...but still cared a TON about #don't expect these to be daily i just had two straight bursts of energy #angry birds headcanons #sorta angry comics #angsty birds

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iwritenarrativesandstuff · 1 year

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Hello, i was just wondering what do you think of akuhigu as a ship? I mean I'm curious about how higuchi ended up being under akutagawa's direct command and why did she fall in love with that guy who constantly hits her and treats her poorly?! I really want asagiri to explore their relationship and not just show it as a one-sided crush without any explanation!!

As a ship? Erm, sorry no. As a dynamic? Heck yeah.

I'm curious as to how Higuchi ended up joining the Mafia in general. I'm already quite intrigued by the notion that she may have some connection to Mori - she's called into his office directly at the beginning of the manga, she's paralleled with Yosano in the scene where both Fukuzawa and Mori succumb to the Cannibalism Virus. There's been some thoughts on a healing type ability, given that she clearly reached out to an injured Akutagawa to do something. Also I know the story only really focuses on her crush, but she's got so much else going on that isn't ever elaborated on - she works hard ostensibly for her little sister, clearly has a "work persona", and is capable of shutting off her emotions and being cold and extremely professional during missions - remember the way she didn't even flinch at Dazai and Kunikida's ridiculousness? Honestly, I just want more Higuchi in general. She was the first Mafia character we the audience meets - why her?

And when it comes to Akutagawa, I think it's really easy to write off as "he just doesn't care about her at all" but I'm going to be honest - I don't think that's true. Akutagawa ranks above Higuchi, but she actually holds a fairly high rank herself, being his support essentially and able to command the Black Lizard - I sincerely doubt he would've kept her in such a position or have her be effectively his right hand if he didn't at least consider her very competent. 55 Minutes has them work quite well together if you're interested and haven't read it already anon, and I think it does show that he respects her at least a little.

He asks her for her thoughts on whether a captive is telling the truth

They bounce intel off of each other very smoothly

When the bomb goes off, the first thing we see him do is call out for Higuchi

Higuchi wasn't sure she could take out a set of guards alone so she tricked them into drinking what I'm assuming was a drugged bottle of sake to knock them out - Akutagawa thought this clever, and was genuinely amused by it

There's also moments in the series too, however brief. He does indeed apologize to her. He also intervenes shortly before Kyouka tries to slice her trigger finger - it could just be lucky timing but I like to think he intervened intentionally.

However, this does not change the fact that he demands her obedience (his rationale often being "because I said so"), and as you said, hitting her repeatedly. This is. Uncomfortable. I'll be honest I don't like Higuchi's writing in the series and this dynamic is largely why. If you're going to write a dynamic like this we could at least delve into it more and denote some interest - I know this whole set up is likely related to one of irl Higuchi's works (Jūsan'ya) where a woman is persuaded to stay in an abusive partnership because the man she is married to is upper class and provides for her lower class family. Higuchi-sensei's works I believe also have themes of unrequited love, and she chose to focus her writing on mostly lower-class people living their lives in general (at least, this is what I've seen. I'll admit I'm not especially familiar with her works.) The author did fall in love with her mentor and the love was unrequited - I'm assuming this is in part the inspiration here. Meanwhile, we know Akutagawa has this mentality of "cruel treatment gets results", which is in keeping with that ongoing theme of abusers in this series largely having good intent, but god-awful execution that is horribly unnecessary. Akutagawa is a product of his own experiences with this, which he projects onto others. I had hoped that this dynamic might've been the first one we got any change in as his character development furthers... but instead it just kind of got sidelined. ...not that I really fully trust it to be given a proper resolution anyways. This kind of stuff is very touchy to me for personal reasons, I'll be honest. :/

On the subject of Higuchi's crush though, I do think Akutagawa is actually aware. Higuchi's not exactly subtle about it, and I take his constant ignoring and changing the subject as discomfort rather than complete obliviousness. If their dynamic does end up becoming a little healthier, it would be kind of funny if it ended a similar way to irl Higuchi's crush... who grew to consider her like a sister instead. Lol. Heartbreaking for poor Higuchi, but actually rather heartwarming for Akutagawa - to admit he considers Higuchi as family? To have family other than Gin? That would be cool tbh.

#thanks for the ask!#while i respect ships that are just for the sake of writing messed up dynamics (i mean. i like the quails from hatoful)#there are some that just really make me uncomfortable like this kind due to personal reasons #but i'm glad you asked this anon. it's interesting and i think you're right that it should be given more focus/development #i guess i just don't necessarily have faith that it'll be handled well even if it did.#bsd #bsd higuchi #bsd akutagawa #bsd meta #storyrambles

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lord-squiggletits · 1 year

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I wish to love and appreciate idw optimus more too. But I also don’t want to read through the entirety of IDW 1.0. Can you please recommend me any specific issues/parts?

My best friend and fellow IDW Optimus lover made a post compiling all the comics with major story beats involving Optimus. Her list has a lot of the same things mine does, but also a lot more specific issues because she actually knows which specific issues of which series you can read specifically for ones focused on IDW Optimus. We don't agree on everything (I love some comics she dislikes and vice versa), but I would recommend her list simply because it's the most well-documented and thorough. Link I also have a lot of far less coherent but still genuine posts about IDW OP on my #idw op love tag.

As for specific parts I would recommend... since you don't want to read through all of IDW1, I'll go ahead and recommend you things based on in-universe chronological order rather than story release order, but if anything here interests you then I would recommend reading IDW1 in release order so that you get a better grasp of the story's context and how new lore was given out over time:

Chaos Theory and Police Action by James Roberts (The Transformers 2009 issues 22-23): I love love LOVE the way JRO writes Optimus talking to Megatron during the present day, it's very IDW-Optimus flavored because of how blunt, abrasive, and snappy Optimus is. There's a part in the comic where Megatron claims that he "knows [Optimus] better than anyone else," and he's right, but it's also true that Optimus knows Megatron well enough to see that he's bullshitting and it's very entertaining watching Optimus slowly lose his patience with him. I love the dialogue especially, no one (canon or fandom) has ever quite written the same IDW OP who's in this set of comics. It's also the most MegOP comic of all time because the sexual tension and the subliminal imagery of them doing BDSM together is unreal, plus it really captures their dynamic of two old soldiers who snap together with chemistry despite (or perhaps because of) being such long-time enemies. They just UNDERSTAND each other so well. Also, as a bonus point, Chaos Theory is where the pre-war lore for IDW1 began being published, so if you read Chaos Theory then the context for future pre-war lore makes a little more sense.

Shadowplay by James Roberts (More Than Meets the Eye issues 10-11): More pre-war lore that picks up where Chaos Theory/Police action left off. Important because it establishes a lot of IDW OP's character relationships, especially with "the Senator," Roller, and to a degree Ratchet and some minor side characters. I don't really know what to say about this besides it's just really fucking fun to read and features IDW OP getting to do cool shit like fight bad guys, investigate conspiracies, and do heists while also establishing one of his key character traits: being disastrously gay for suspicious men that he places entirely too much trust in to tell him what the right thing to do is.

Spotlight: Orion Pax by James Roberts: Okay, I'm really sorry for recommending JRO's stuff because it feels like favoritism and I don't even think JRO does the best version of IDW OP, it's just going in in-universe chronological order means that a lot of JRO stuff ends up first on the list. This one doesn't really have much of consequence in it and is honestly one of the weaker Spotlight issues, but like Shadowplay, it involves Orion Pax doing fun action shit and having way too much trust in a suspicious man (a new one from the suspicious man in Shadowplay).

The Autocracy Trilogy (Autocracy, Monstrosity, Primacy) by Chris Metzen: Oh my fucking god this is THE IDW Optimus to me, this trilogy is literally what made my ears perk up to even start liking IDW OP because it's what took me from "Optimus Prime, that's the guy who's the super awesome leader that everyone likes and is a paragron to everyone, yeah I know him" to "Oh.... holy shit this is such a good plot/worldbuilding, Optimus has so much CONFLICT and DRAMA with other people." It covers one of my favorite periods of the general Transformers formula, namely pre-war and early war plot events as conflicts come to a boiling point, there's political conflicts and personal conflicts, the planet is falling to shit and everyone is trying to escape and things are as depressing and scary as you would expect for a war that's literally about to consume a whole planet. I found the general plotlines to be gripping and intense (Autocracy is the weakest in this regard, but the writing gets better with each book) and I really like seeing how Optimus grapples with leadership. Especially the negative parts where people hate/fear him because of his association with Zeta's regime (the previous Prime, who Orion worked for), call his judgment into question, refuse his calls to action or waver in their faith in him, and so forth. I found it to be a really nuanced yet sympathetic view of IDW Optimus that made me fall in love with him. Because really, the thing that humanizes a character the most is making them flawed, and Autocracy trilogy Optimus is so incredibly flawed and conflicted. And also it shows him being shit on by other characters in a way that's well written in a plot that makes sense and doesn't feel like the entire plot is conspiring to shit all over him.

The Death of Optimus Prime by James Roberts and John Barber: This comic is basically the transition from phase 1 to phase 2, it establishes the branching plotlines of MTMTE and exRID, so this is another one of those comics that will help you understand IDW1 better if you want to read for more than just Optimus. Anyways, DoOP is great because it has a similar vibe to the Autocracy trilogy in that society is chaos and full of people who fucking hate Optimus' guts for the role he played in the war. You can also compare/contrast the way OP was before the war and early in the war versus the way he is after the war and see how much the war changed him (Chaos Theory also kind of is like this but it more shows bitchy Optimus specifically in his dynamic with Megatron). It also features a fair amount of Optimus Heroic Moments, Optimus Brooding, and Optimus being so fucking depressed he's literally sad when he wakes up and realizes he's not dead dude get some fucking therapy please I'm begging you--

Punishment by John Barber: This skips ahead quite a bit in the story but I think stands decently well on its own without having to understand the wider context. It's one of Barber's best-written stories and one of the only ones I've come back to reread for its own sake. It features Optimus trying to solve the murder-mystery of a bunch of Decepticons, featuring really cool plot conflicts like Optimus trying to navigate post-war society and the tensions that still linger from the Autobot-Decepticon war. I really like this one because it has that whole "not everyone loves OP and a lot of people hate him for justified reasons" thing that makes IDW OP a much more 3D character, PLUS it has some politics with the way Decepticons are treated post war. And I think it does really interesting things with Optimus in terms of showing how he DOES have this idealistic, merciful side that wants people to choose peace and letting go of vengeance, but of course it's not so easy to expect that of people after a 4 million year war. So when people inevitably choose violence, Optimus gets frustrated and angry and lashes out in a way that feels very real and understandable. It's a really good example of a comic that shows IDW OP in a nuanced way, showcasing both his virtues and flaws in a complicated situation that shows that there's no easy solution to these problems and no way for Optimus to escape without getting his hands dirty. Unlike future comics which involve OP being in complicated situations but instead the plot is super contrived and seems to overwhelmingly shit on OP without ever mentioning the very obvious ways that he could be defended, creating a story that's conceptually fascinating but incredibly mediocre in execution.

If I had to recommend any single one of these to read, I would recommend the Autocracy trilogy the most because it's literally the story that made me love IDW Optimus and made me realize "whoa, this guy is super nuanced and not what I expected of him." That's not to say that no other Optimi have depth and nuance, but I think the Autocracy trilogy was great for me personally as one of the first IDW1 comics I read. It struck a really good balance between "uh Optimus was part of some bad things that warrant being shit on" and "Optimus is struggling to overcome those bad associations he did, succeeding with some people and failing with others" and "Optimus is an optimist who has faith in others even when they don't have faith in themselves." Also, as a bonus, the Autocracy trilogy also features cunty murder-husband Megatron, an interesting character arc for Hot Rod, and the Dinobots as really interesting supporting characters (including their leader, Grimlock, having a cute veteran-rookie dynamic with Hot Rod that I wish we got more of).

#squiggle answers #idw op love #also the blog of that post i linked has a lot of meta posts on idw op. they're really good analyses #and also explain lore and connect dots in ways that i don't do as well because i don't have as fine of a grasp of the lore #also like. just as an aside. i would recommend reading the transformers 2009 because that also features a good idw op #featuring him being an action hero but also tired and frustrated and very human #another note: JRO is a good fun writer but i find his IDW OP is a bit too...whitewashed in a way?#he's very interesting and fleshed out and sympathetic but JRO clearly puts OP on a pedestal and doesn't fully get into the bad parts #barber imo is the opposite where he's more critical of OP in both good and bad ways but his writing uh #barber's writing isn't uh. i think it's very hit or miss tbh #and metzen i just adore because i knew his writing from being an old world of warcraft fan #and he was responsible for the period of lore that fans generally consider to be the core of the franchise #but also keep in mind there are ppl with completely different opinions from me #i've found that even among idw op fans people have slightly different takes on him and interpret his character in different ways #where like. we all came to the conclusion of loving idw op but with different reasonings and favorite story moments #so YMMV but IDW OPTIMUS IS AN INCREDIBLY SLEPT ON OPTIMUS PLEASE TALK TO ME MORE ABOUT HIM

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orchideae · 7 months

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The attire dissection, folks. (Part 1)

A friend of mine (@spiderwarden) sent an ask a while back about how Yelan would go about putting herself together in terms of attire, and I remember going 'christ', because how do you begin dissecting most outfits that look almost too maddening to explain, in an anime-style game where outfits are often ridiculous and not meant to be explained 'realistically'. But then I realized that this is miHoYo, and this is their Genshin Impact, which means that the devil will always reside in the details. And personally, I like this little devil a lot. Now, I'd always noticed a few things, but they initially seem tied into a whole bunch of illogical 'outfitting', but her outfit is really actually not illogical at all. Let me see if I can explain this coherently.

(Zoomed in version here) The subject in question: the beautiful Yelan— okay, okay, I'll stop fawning, fine. Any way, I always looked at her outfit as a two-piece, a full length bodysuit of some kind (what are those called again?), with an overcoat which holds all of those blue accents in her attire. And I was never sure whether her shoes were boots and if they were, where they ended because I saw no proper cuff/top. I was so torn, I even once thought they were somehow tied into the bodysuit, because I genuinely couldn't make out the top of them! Yes, welcome to the 'illogical anime outfit thinking', but let's be honest, it's done commonly enough in that area of media. But no, the basis of her outfit is actually not that complex at all, and is rather realistic. What is complex, is the intense amount of 'personalization' of each piece , the thought that went into them and what inspired them. But that will be for for part 2.

It is technically a three-piece, a bodysuit, an overcoat and thigh high boots. To elaborate: first up, at the very base of it is a halter bodysuit that has a very low-cut back and shorts, it looks very close to something like this in shape. On top of that, as you can see rather clearly in her outfit, it is entirely see-through/mesh and is customized with fish-netting, cut-outs and various other detailing on the front (some of which rather intricate I might add, as this bodysuit may have been chosen for practical reasons, but has in that light, been fully altered to her tastes). Yelan, as per a teapot voiceline ("I'm guessing you've fallen for the rumors about me being very wealthy and having high demands for my standards of living?"), isn't someone who spends mora on things easily, but when she does for practical purposes, it's when she may splurge a bit, but it's not without reason entirely. But I digress a bit, because that's a topic for another day. Secondly, is the overcoat, this is the piece that's most easily identified by all the blues and it covers a fair bit of the bodysuit, it is also secured around the neck in a halter-design, it covers the 'outline' of her upper-chest, leaving her back bare as well, and it hangs down towards the front, ending roughly where her bodysuit does as well. And then thirdly, there's the boots, which are thigh-high and end exactly where you see the diagonal lines towards the front of her upper legs (if you look at any of the sideviews, you'll note the difference in elevation between the shaft of her boot and her leg).

What draws me most though, is the bodysuit. It's incredibly aesthetically pleasing in terms of its design, with the decision of the mesh material, along with the very specific decisions on details (ie: the fishnetting on her right side, the cut-out on its left half, the straps across her hips hiding the more intimate item of dress underneath them, and especially the separate design on the front that you'd more so find on those high-waist old-school sailor shorts with the bigger buttons at the front). The fact that it's a halter design, truly offers a more secure hold than honestly anything else would, as shoulder straps tend to slip from your shoulders (and especially being slender as she is, it becomes increasingly impossible to find something that will never slip), and strapless is absolutely not doable with all of the movement that she does. In essence, a bodysuit of this sort of design would be skintight but stretchy enough to allow for proper movement as she's really rather agile, but considering how secure of a hold it offers, it also means that (apologies for the TMI), there may not be any need for a bra, as the bodysuit would offer it, in its stead. But this also plays into practicality: the less layers, the better. I also wonder about this latter detail, because there is no sign or trace of any bra straps anywhere at all, and a halter-design bra also would be apparent somewhere. Nope, I think that darker part that you see covering her breasts is actually part of the bodysuit, and very intricately designed. I think this damn piece of clothing might be one of the most intricate parts of her outfit. I actually did find a modder that removed the 'drape' part of the overcoat that covers her abdomen, but left the upper portion of it (but you can tell from the images at the top of the post that these two 'parts' are a one piece that overlaps, due to the difference in elevation)— any way, this mod actually shows half of the frontal design of the bodysuit. Again, be aware that the part covering her chest area (the blue on one side, white on the other) is not part of the bodysuit, and instead is part of her overcoat. If she took it off, those would be gone. Now imagine the boots to be gone (which again, go up to the diagonal stripe designs at the front), and you're left with the bodysuit!

Honestly, all of this draws a magnificent image for me in my head. The sight of when she retires either in her home outside of the city, in Yanshang, or the home I headcanon that she's properly bought in Qiaoying Village (properly purchased, mind you, to help the villagers) at some point, for the night. When she takes off her boots, it would be quite casual and relaxed to see her in the bodysuit and the overcoat that covers it. And if in privacy, or around those she's more at ease around (granted, there would be nothing 'sexual' about it, she's very practical and very realistic, and there's nothing intentionally 'sexy' about it unless she intends for it to be), she'd even forego the overcoat. Yelan, walking around preparing her tea, barefoot and with her legs almost entirely bare? The epiphany of peaceful, in my head.

And a little bit of an extraordinary and beautiful sight, but that's just me... sorry, I couldn't restrain myself any longer. Hi hello, my name is Sae, and thank you for having read part 1 of my lunacy in terms of her outfit. Part 2 will focus on the actual design of the overcoat and bodysuit, and what was likely used as inspiration for her. I'm unsure whether I'll add in her hair, and accessories into that post, it'll all depend on how long it gets. But there's the intention any way.

#[ meta. ] the chances are if i open this door; there can be no witnesses left alive. is that a sufficient reason for you?#[ aven i'll never be able to write as much and as fast as you-- but gdi. i'll still write. ]#[ /distracts with chocolate so i can absorb some of the energy. ]#[ but also! I DID IT. MEL THANK YOU. literally scrolling by your ask is what made me re-analyze her outfit again. ]#[ and don't worry; i'll answer the ask at one point too-- but this first needed to go in a separate post. ]

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